EM4

• Sociolinguistics


  The study of the relationship between language and society
• Childhood


  A time or state of being a child
• Important stages in a child's development


  • Preschool years (mainly surrounded by family)
  • Time spent at a kindergarten
  • School years (peer relations and other factors gain importance)
• Sensitive Period Hypothesis


  A gradual period of declining; allowance of greater variation in attainment
• Possible explanations for adults' learning incapability

  • Social psychology: not wanting to give up their accent; being unable to lower their ego
  • Cognitive factors: being too sensible when learning second language
  • Neurological changes: losing plasticity or flexibility
  • Language input: not being exposed to second language input as well as children
• Eric Lenneberg published his book "Biological Foundations of Language"


  1967
• Lenneberg's hypothesis was based on three groups of people


  • People who had brain damage through accidents or diseases of puberty
  • Children with down syndrome
  • Wild children
• Brain plasticity (neuroplasticity)


  Changes in neural pathways and synapses due to changes in behavior, environment, neural processes, and bodily injury
• Language


  A method of human communication through organized words, either spoken or written
• Lateralization


  The localization of functions in the brain, commonly attributed to its left hemisphere and right hemisphere
• Language functions in the brain

  • Wernicke's Area (left hemisphere) responsible for spoken and written language
  • Temporoparietal cortex and anterior inferior frontal cortex analyze written words
  • Broca's Area initiates speech production, assisted by premotor area in selecting and sequencing speech sounds
  • Arcuate fasciculus transmits language information from Wernicke's Area to Broca's Area
• Human split-brain studies have helped develop knowledge about language and lateralization
• Language functions of the left and right hemispheres

  • Left Hemisphere: Naming objects, logic, critical thinking, reasoning
  • Right Hemisphere: Verbal identification of objects in left visual field, figurative language, emotional expression, music processing
• The left hemisphere is mostly concentrated on the interpretation of information through logic and analysis, while the right hemisphere is focused on the interpretation of experience in its totality via synthesis
• Cognitive developmental stages


  • Sensorimotor (birth-2 years): Understand world through senses
  • Pre-operational (2-7 years): Understand world through language and mental images
  • Concrete Operational (7-12 years): Understand world through logical thinking and categories
  • Formal Operational (12 years onward): Understand world through hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning
• Affective considerations in language learning

  • Egocentricity: Very young children see the world as revolving around them
  • Attitudes: Negative attitudes can affect language learning, but young children have no problem learning a second language
  • Peer Pressure: Stronger for children, who are harsher critics of each other's speech
• Noam Chomsky - believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any language
• Nativist Approach


  The view that children are biologically programmed for language, with an innate capacity (language acquisition device) that enables them to become competent language users regardless of their learning environment
• Exercise Hypothesis


  Early in life, humans have a superior capacity for acquiring languages, and if this capacity is not exercised during this time, it will disappear or decline with maturation, but if it is exercised, further language learning abilities will remain intact throughout life
• Maturational State Hypothesis


  Early in life, humans have a superior capacity for acquiring languages, and this capacity disappears or declines with maturation
• Babbling - begins around six months old and consists of repetitive syllables such as "ba" or "da".
• Critical Period Hypothesis - The first few years of life are crucial for children's cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and linguistic growth.
• Wilder Penfield and Lamar Roberts - proposed the critical period hypothesis